Uncover: Dogs

Uncover: Dogs

Authors: Paul Beck 

Illustrator: Jennifer Fairman

Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books

Copyright Date: 2008

# of Pages: 16

Genre: Non-fiction

            The uncover books are always really interesting books because they allow you see into the animal they’re covering. In this book, you get to move system to system by each page as the animal is “uncovered” and broken down. Each page is filled with information about each system and how dogs use that system. Sometimes the information will compare and/or contrast the system in the dog to humans.

            Many of the illustrations are photographs, but most of the illustrations are drawings with mixed media of color pencils and paint. They’re very organic and made to represent the lifelike characteristics of the animal they’re illustrating. The center of the book has a model of the dog has he’s being broken down which is made of plastic that sits on each layer by page. The illustrator doesn’t make a lot of use of intense angles or color tones. Everything is very two dimensional besides the center piece of the book.

            This book is appropriate for ages eight and up. I could see this as a great book to pull out in the sixth grade for a lesson on the body systems. You could also use this book in the fourth grade on a comparing and contrasting project. You could refer to certain pages when talking about mammals in the third grade, but that’s about as low as I could go with this book. I really like the novelty of this book, and I feel like it would be a great conversation piece in a classroom that would engage curiosity in students.